Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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VOL. Ill. z.A{NNING, CL.AREN\DONT COUNTY,S.(,EDSDM)MBR9NOii OUR CRIMINAL LAW. SOME TIMELY SUGGESMONS UPON AN INTERESTING StBJECT. Facts and Opinious which Commesdi( Tbemselves to Serious Consideratiou Wc.rk of the Legislature. t eowee Courier-Editorial.) We have read with some interest, but with more surprise, the views of some of our leading lawyers on the defects of the criminal law, and the escape of guilty criminals thereby, as the cause for the frequency and gravity of crimes. They propose changes in a system which ha' met the approval of an enlightened cen tury and advocate them as a remedy against lynch law and the alleged preva lence of crime. We cannot hope, in a single article, to point out all the falla cies in the studied articles of these dis tinguished writers, but will briefly al lude to the salient points of error, which, in our view, they contain. Before entering on the subject, we will state that our views of the criminal law have always been the reverse of those ex pressed in the articles named, and when in the Legislature we suggested a change in the law, which would give the defend ant in criminal prosecutions the reply is argument in all cases. We thought then, and still believe, persons charged with crime are put on trial at a great d isad vantage. It is true, that in theory every man is presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty, but in practice, the cor pus delicti being established, every per son charged with crime is supposed to be guilty. This results from our nature. All honest men have a natural antipathy to crime, as afecting injuriously, either directly or indirectly, the security of their persons, propurty and reputtion, and from this fact the mere charge of a crime against an individual leads the public mind in the channel of guilt. As a consequence every individual cha.rged with crime must meet and defeat this natural inclination, either by proof of past good character or direct proof of innocence. This position needs no ilus tration of its truth, for when we read or hear of any cruel or heinous crime, :&ct - ing life or property, or even the reputa tion of a female, and a party is arrested for it, we hear the cry, hang him, he ought to be strung up without lax or gospel. Not a few instances have oc curred where this feeling has culmiiatea in the summary execution of the al eged criminal without inquiry as to, or pioof of, guilt. This characteristic of our naimu is doubtless the father of the right o , de tenant in capital cases to challeng" per emptorily twenty jurors. He ha:, aid should hare, the right of trial by a aery composed of calm, unimpassioned men, free-from any bias or prejudice aginst him or his counsel or the crime itseidfor there is aninnate prejudice against cnme which it is difficult for any of us to ato straet frim the person charged with the crime. This right of challenge is neither designed nor does it operate as a right to select a jury, and we do not think it should be abridged, being in itself wise and having stood the test of a century. Again, in theory the State has only the right of reply, but in practice this means the right to sit with closed mouth util the defence has opened out its whole asa, and then in one argument both to eply to defendant and pile up the point~s for the State. We have heard cases where a practiced solicitor by a pointed necdote or appropriate parable has vir tally disspated the argument for the &efence, and then, with track cleared, gasg applied facts and circumstances pointing to guilt, which by a reply could have been scattered in turn. Thej-adge not being allowed, and properly, too, to carge on the facts, the handling of them by an experienced solieitor goes fresh to the jury. In this, the defendant is at a disadvantage, as no lawyer is ignorant of the advantage of the reply, which in criminal cases, in practice, is both the argument for the State and the reply to the defendant. Again, defendants in criminal cases are generally poor men, often ignorant aso, and neither know nor are pecunia rily able to employ efficient counsel. In espital cases young counsel are generally appointed to defend them, who have made no preparation and have no expec tatien of reward. The State, on the con -tray, isrich and powerful. It not only airies and employs emmnent counsel, *but awyers, who often have had years of experience in the prosecutionl of crna inals. They have the criminal law at their tongue's end and are not onlyready in argument, but well posted on ali ques tions of doubtful testimony. In tims, too, defendants are at great ,disadvant Again, in theory the State asks the eonition of no innocent man, but in practice, from the very nature of the le gal profession and fromn the fact that mn all cases sent up for trial, the State has e pima facie csae, solicitors, as arue though not intending it, prosecute for conviction and present in the strougesl ~ight every fact pointing to or bearing o: gilt. True, in olden times the cefend ant in criminal cases clas na.we-d 1~ counsel, but then the Queen's counae: presented all the facts, pro and con,, an' eft the case to the g-ary. .Now there art two aides in every case, criminal as we as civil, and the contest is for a tri of guilty on one side and not guiliy on the other, each attorney arraymgi~ tLa facts of his side to the best of his aLm-.~ This is the practice, and in the. so tr of the State and the expen1.:.e tr consel, she defendant is at anu Again, the law says it is et-: h -many guilty shudescape tm hto innocent man should suffer. .t ese ein nent writers contend, and perhips ruy too, that many gniity do escapea e: cribe it to defects ni the? law, opt there no statement of inaocent par bes s ing and no positive word ofrem iiin urieg againt convictiuU1. We r..d - week an atcecen~t ci :t ttoed i:& en yited in Toene o f grand larco-? On publishing the yerdiet, thce prigo' /arose and solemmly aiieging his iirai ence, thrust a knife into his that aux fell dead. Was he gality? Who kn;v At all events hi-story in this and thei ul wgnntr records numerous instances persons convicted and executed, in same cases imprisoned for years, when their innocence was established. In such cases convictior s are generally based on circumstantial evidence, and the experi ence of that eminent crimiina judge, Lora Hal, led him to spec a:".y w::rn juries against crnvictions (n ureiy cir cumstantial evidence. The same rule applies with cqua' force in all cases, for the-lines of distivction ix.ween misad venture, self-defcnce, manslaughter and murder, so shade into each other as to render it very diflicult to locate the grade of crime. In cases resting on cir cumstantial evidence, the corpus delicti 1-eieg proved, the quiestiou is, who did :ne killing and under what circum stances? In ordinary homlicide , the s'ayer being known, the question is, was there just ca'?se for the act or suflicient provocation to reduce the killing below murder and how far. Here lies the difli cuity. The jury, being unable to read the heart or interpret the motives of the slayer, find it hard to fixthegradc of the crime and hence their verdict. We are not surprised that few persons are found guilty of-murder, for it is better to err on the side of mercy than strict justice. Rather are we surprised that any man should have within him the elements of murder and hence that any are guilty, though many are. Murder is a killing with malice and pre-supposes a heart de void of social duty and fatally bent on mischief, a heart desperately wicked and utterly regardless of human life. It is hard to conceive of a man so abandoned as to commit it, but such men do live and when they kill with malice they should suffer the penalty, but they should have all the rights of defence consisient with the preservation of society. Now we say these rights, as they exist, should not be abridged, and in saying this we have no sympathy with crime or criminals, but for the reason that persons charged Kith crime are not neecesarily criminals, and because, in our judgment, the State professing protection to her citizens, from our nature and practice in triais, his great advantages over defeud'nts charged with crie. e. All citizens are persotally interested in the prevention and suppression of crime, but having! this natural feelin:g we should guard agaLinst making the im an instrument of vengeance against crime without regard to the criminal, rather striving to enforce the law with justice tempered with these ; merciful provisions, the law in its terms attempts to throw around, nor criminals, but persons charged with crime. Let us now examine the assumed facts on which the articles of Judge Hudson and others are based, keeping in mind the maxims, bad the crow, bad the egg, like produces like, a false premiss neces sariiv leads to a false conciu:aion. These writers assume as a i:.et that -tave cries, especially murders, are gro' ing of more frequent eccurrence in our State. Is this true? As to our county, we deny its truth and for verifiction appe'l to tradition and the records of our courts. As to the State, all things considered, w; also deny its truth. Up in such a charge by a conimpoar'y less than two years ago, we examied our sessions docket and found less than twenty (we think sixteen or seventeen) cases of murder entered, including cases not arrested and tried, and covering the! period since the war. Severat of these cases were homicide by misadventure or purely technieal manslaughter, and all the others tried were cases of self defnce or manslaughter from sudden heat and passien, except one based on circumstan tial evidence. In all these cases only one verdict of murder was found and the party was executed. Let us look at these facts in the light of the past twenty years and compare them with facts of twenty years before! the war. In 1S8 the people had emerged! from a long war and found their houses! often pilfered and destroyed, their stock gone, lheir farms a waste, their slaves emancipated, themselves a conquered peonie, poor, reckless and demoralized, and by frequent contact with blood and death habitually prone to undervalue human life. For such a people is not the lim record of homicides in the county! an honor and the highest encomium on the law-abiding character of cur people? But this is not all. During the twentyj years over 4,000 slaves in the county were raised to full citizenship, a positio they were totally untitted to fill from want of education, training and integrity: of character. In this new-fiedged liberty they natur.dly became arrogant to their! former masters, did not regard the law of nrem and tuum and in the changed rela tion of whites ana blacks numerous al teations and homicides would naturaiy Ibe expected. How slim the recordan how complimentary to tho peaceable character of the whites, when it showvs but three negroes killed by 'whites in 20m years in a population of nearly 20,000; peopis. But thins is not all. During the 20 years the negro, invested with suf irage, sought and obtained, political nwer, abused it, oppressed the peopie, 'ith (axation, wrecked the credit of the State goverafnt by the issue and sae of State bonds, and with his Radical al lies inaugunated 4 syste.n of public pui i age which maddened the white elemen an ' aided demoralizadion to demoraliza tion. In the face -f these abnor~nt times the counitry . expect a beca tomb of homicides e. yyear, and yet the spirit of inw and order prevailed to a onderful.extant, giving us a better re cor thn tat.fo a hka. palrud in n~oad 20 years the Ai Ln e Raiload has bee surveyed, gra'd and built and a good deal oi work ua., been d1o on the ilu Ridge Rtoad, drag. - :;ether groupo laborers of : c- ~ch~s and Goiors d tending te d'.L.-.e L an d icdes- NO\ towrns have ah~o 'prutng up and cour u'op combi iU the .enenie.t (oche Iings and. peaem brokirg an:d thecrine alit coud ave apecie d. E. a, - acess to i? i w 5resaii , wi. lo largr nu.mbe of gr.tv cr. cai7-: icludedi for 20 :.car. ore te w than in the pam - yer - a. the increase of popu to . y1o tion and the~ citiship of the -.a whse viol~tions of in...ee..f. t cognizable in? h or etsL sar remember when four~ wh'e men e Itried at the same court before theao for kiinig white men and when ten ver twelve laborers were in jail from Tunnel Hill for murder. In fact we can count from memory more homicides by whites before the war than have occurred in the last 20 years, and our memory will not extend back 20 years prior to the war. This. too, when our population in 1845 wa li:tle over half what it is now. Why, then, you ask, is there a general impression that homicides ;re fsr more frequent and increasing constantly than they formerly were? Simply because the assertion is so commonly and confidently made that it has been accented as a fact without investigation. An old philoso pher was once puzzled with the question, why water in a tub with a fish in it would weigh the same as it did without the fish. Was the fact true? He found on investigation it was not. So, we con tend, these writers on the criminal law will find on investigation, certainly in our county, that the pillar of their arti cles is false in fact and hence leads to a false conclusion. Another reason why men conclude that homicide is on the increase is the ease, ra pidity and completeness of the collection of news through the operationsof the tele graph, the railroads, the press and the more complete system of mails. There is not an accident or homicide or other grave crime committed in the State or the United States but is flashed over the wires to the remotest part of the nation. In a population of sixty millions of peo ple this array of crime in all its horrors presents a formicable and fearful record, and editors, seeing this commingled re cord daily, conclude on general princi ples that neither life nor property will long be secure, unless the homicidal ten dency of the age is checked. in this way, without investigation and without regard to the area and population cover ed by the daily report of crimes in all parts of the country, the impression gets out and the cry is raised: "Crime abounds and is increasing at a fearful rate." The same mistaken idea, proceeding from a like cause, exists in other matters. In the summer we hear men say more per sons are killed by lightning now than formncrlv. This is true and yet false. True, in that more people are now killed than formerly, because population has in creased, but false, in that no greater per centage is killed. The same is largely true of fires, railroad accidents and such le, the difference now, if any, being attributed to negligence. Thin is an age of travel and news, an age when, figura ively speaking, what is spoken in the ear is proclaimed from the housetop. We say, then, that, so far as our county is concorned, crime is not on the increase, and so far as the State is concerned, all :hiuss b.ing considered, we do not be leve it is en the increase. In face at the +t term of court at Pickens there was ,or a good hard day's work on the crim -nai docket and tEi c.mrt of sessions t r early TuesLy. It rarely hols t W--ih' m above a day and a lazti, and t i'e summer term the e tit jury is ften discharged before the grand jury Cn cnt pie its report. Oin examination it ill be found also that the bulk of r , smal and grave, is commi.ted by negroes and that even counting them we have, re-lativeiy speaking, few criues, Charges such as are made in the articles ferred to operate injuriously on the citizens of the State, tending to impede Emmigr-tiun, lower the valne of property an prevent the investment and infiax of capital, and if not founded on solid facts, should be refuted. We have heretofore briefly alluded to he right of challenge of jurors in crim inl cases, and expressed our opposi tion to any change in the law giving Judges the right to charge on the facts. We think intelligent jurors, who seo and often know personally the defendants and witnesses in suc cases, can beft: nderstand and weigh the value of estimony and should be permitted to form their judgment on the facts brought ut without "aid or influence by the* udge." The latter is generally an entire tranger to the parties and could not form as correct an .opinion on facts as itizens of the county. He now has all he power he should have. We shall now consider one other al eged defect which, we think, has no oundation in fact, viz: that juries, by eason of bias from personal fricndship owards the defendant, or against the state from being stood aside by the so iitor, too often fail to convict when the roof warrants a verdict of guilty. In ther words, that under the present law, iving defendant a s,-called right to se ect the jury and shutting off the right of he judge, "to aid~ the jury and indu mene the resullt," conviction of the guilty s the exception and escape the rule, re ersing the old rule. We have already shown that men have an innate antipathy to crime and that he mere charge of crime brings odium n the party charged and leads to an pinion of guilt, which defendant muet ramove. The State, by its able and espe ienced solicitor, having the closing ar gument, why should the judge have or esire the right to argue thie facts t-> the jury or "to aid the jury or influence the result," or, as the wrnter says, to bring them back to right reason when their minds have been led astray by stte argument? This looks a little bloody, a iittle vindictive, perhails a liitte yeYreyitish, and such power in une jadge is not necessary, either for the peace, order or protection of society. But we have digressed. The jury law in South Carolina has been grealy im roved since the war. FoA.rmerly jurons vere promiscuously drawn in open court from a box containing the names of al.1 votng tappayers of tim county a" i the~ list was prepared six months bceore the term of service began. No' special qali ications were required. Under the pe ett lw the box is tiled by selrecig'-uo the taixpayers of tu county' liie 0. ox z'is reprcent eldzte of hdetL ncof g~o'd mor)*l character and in e fr Jega: eception. Fromn the box SO lille .a jur of ech tem is dra~wj a ht tim. b.or court. Tihm law pro v ida at the box sal be hiled by a .- or, the. chairmn of the bo.ard o ar, wOs ' al ' 'css i - intlin me. chner" sholdJ and doesJ glie our cour rere tatv men on1~~ th:e ju:ry endc ope r- ts as a safe guard tu ianno c'ence and a trror 'o the~ guilty. We womdl beso'rn to, beieve that suchU nen c0i~ou--b ba or prejudiced against the Statto, whic-h truly mens against thiemselves, thiri fadies and the-ir interests, by the mere in the process of empanneling a jury for a special case. We would be grieved to think that any moral. intelligent juror would wilfully form and nurse a bias or prejudice -for or against his fellow, against his personal interest and sworn duty. We are prone to .udge men by our own nature, and ac d to all the meed of honesty and goid faith, until they have forfeited the fight to it by their acts and conduct. Let evil be to him that thinketh evil. The only and great danger -f bias or prejudice in a criminal case is against the accused and proceeds from that natural repulsion to crime which is found in the hearts of all honest men. From this there is danger that a juror, though acting honestly and conscientimusly on his judgment, may see and hear and judge darkly on the evidence. Strive as he may to hear and decide impartially, he may, unconscious ly to himself, be influenced against the accused, by his hatred to crime attach ing to the party charged with it. While this is true we must remember that no system can be perfect and free from all objection and that as men must and will differ in opinion, no scheme can be adapted to the wishes or wants of all. The essential features of the present system of trial by jury have stood the test of ages, have protected life and pro perty to the general satisfaction and have found.no acceptable sabstitute. We say let them stand unimpaired, for if there be any force in the objection on the ground of bias, by standing aside a juror and such like, there is no remedy for it save in abolishing jury trial altogether. A panel of I8 jurors could have no effect, for assuming- that jurors have so little honesty as to be controlled by prejudice for being stood aside on the one hand, or by personal feelings for or against the defendant on the other, is to put it beyond the power of either party to get a true jury. We are satisfied with the pre ent system and believe this hue and cry of grave crimes heing on the increase is a false alarm, founded on naked rau:or without investigation; fur ther, that jaries fail in their duties has no foundation in the records of our courts. A full reply to tle extraordinary arti cles of these wriars, or rather a just vin dication of the peace and order of our State, all things considered, would re quire several articles, and if the discus sion goes on we reserve the right to our say. We hope also in a future short ar ticle to show that lynch law is in no way attributable to defeats in our crimi nal law or its administration, but purely and solely to the cruelty, heinousness and aggravated circumstances attending the crime. As there are croakers in farming, in mechanics, in morals and in other pursuits, so we find them in the law, and as in the former cases, the fault, if any, lies not in Providence, so in the later, the diefect, if any, lies not in the law. Let us then lay aside com plaints and using tiff means before us, effective for generations, move on in the road to peace and prosperty. RESCUING TH E DESERTS. Arid Western Wastes to be Made to .icd So~n s the Rose. (From tLe Nepw York T imes.) The farmers of Nebraska have served notice upon the "great American desert" that it must wit'ilrav; from their State, and are now pushing its eastern bounda ry across the line into Wyoming and Colorado. On the ith instant Cheyenne county's first agricultural fair was held at Sidney, a town on the meridian of 103 degrees. This county, which is about the size of the State of Connecti cut, lies between the meridians of 102 degrees and 104 degrees, far beyond the line which was declared a few years ago to be the Western limit of agriculture in the region lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi. Sidney is situated on Lodge Pole Creek, a tributary cf the South Platte. Three years ago there was not a farm house or any sign of habitati )n in the region between these streams, which ex tends across the southern part of Cheyenne county. "To-day," said General Morrow, "the landscapo is dotted all over with houses, looking like the little silver spots on emerald fields." The soil is surpassingly rich in the ele ments which produce magnificent crops of corn. wheat, oats and other cereals." Almost the only drawbaek is "the sup posed lack of moisture in the crop growing months of June, July and Au gust." But this "supposed lack of moisture" has not prevented the settle ment of the county by farmers and suficent agricultural developmenut within two or three years to warrant the holding of a fair in "the desert." With regard to changes which have made the region attractive, General Morro w said: "Has the climate of Western Nebraska changed within the last few years, and is it still undergoing modification? I think it is safe to say that the climate of all the Northwesteru States has undergone, and is still undergoing, a change in respect to the amount of moisture annually de posited in the form of rain and dew. From observations running thr.ough ten years in Eastern Nebraska it may be cnsidered as an establi.shed fact that there are more rainy days in the year than there were formzerly." To shioiv that the climate of a country is maoditied'oy cuhivation and settlement le referred to his esperience at Fort Douglas, in Utah. This post was estab lished in 1861. and in that year the re cozrded raiufall there was only eleven inches. General Morrow was in com mand at the ixost froma 1870j to 1874, and in the last ilmn-d ye ar the rainfall, which had been "gradi?an fereasing from year to yetar,"' reac.hed twenty-seven iehs. Th' gr0rLr ut:.a ramu a.lhu:hisr rdb ti Menn~rons that in 17 andior ser' ral years after ward tuere was in thiese months seairce ly any preiptation of moisture. J.I' Prsioc's Merchant Tailer Ei> tablsme*t, C0Jmbie, S. C., is in fi!! o ne. Al ajt waiit a tirst-class fitirg suit try him. A fall line of thle b;.t goods~ on hand. "D) you kuow.~ a aything about Itobin son's reputati'on for veracity ?" it ought to stadil very high. He toki m is new dog cost him $25. lHe paid iDumley $10 f or it. A man who can cou? fine himself se strongly to the truth as that when talking' about isdgeers theconideceof tecommunity. "-Tf be TIMELY TOPICS FOR FARMERiS HOW TO DO PAYING WORK AT Timl SEASON. Suggestions of Interest, from an Autihori tative Source. (W. L. Jones in Southern Cultivator-) SOWINo WI-EAT. The old Georgia rule was to sow in the dark nights in October. We are of the opinion that the man who understood the rule literally, and sowed, plowed and harrowed in his crop after dark, was as philosophical as those who insist tha wheat should be sown during the last quarter Qf the moon in October. Tie "dark nights"-so-called-as often oc:ur during the first week as during the last week. The best rule probably is to sow about the usual time of the first killing frost, which generally occurs, in Middle Georgia, about the last of October or first of November. Such a rule applies equally well throughout the region in which winter-sowing prevails, and ad justs itself to the other operations and conditions on a farm, none of which are dependent upon the phases of the moon. As already suggested in last month's "Thoughts," not every farmer should attempt to produce his own supply of wheat. Proper diversifiction of crops doe: not imply that a farmer should ab solutalf prOduce everything. But there are many farms in the hill country of the Eastern, Gulf and South Atlantic States, on which wheat may be grown with almost as much certainty as in the great wheat States of the Northwest. Experience has shown that the best re sults are obtained when seed of South ern growth are sown, of varietics that are of local, good reputation. Seed wheat from the North and West fail, as a rule, when sown in the cotton States. Sow on high, well-drained cotton land, having a clay subsoil close by, manuring with cotton seed, or meal mixed with acid phosphate, in the proportion of twenty bushels of cotton seed or two hundred pounds of meal to one hundred pounds of acid phosphate, which will do for one acre. If the green seed are used they should be plowed in before sowing the wheat. If the meal be used with acid phosphate the mixture may be sown with the wheat on the freshly plowed land and harrowed in altogether. CATS. It is still in good time to sow oats in the southern parts of our territory. In deed, it is tue usual time in Southern Georgia aa contiguous sections of other States. If the work was not done last month, even in regions farther north, it is advisable to sow oats even now, rather than -rely entirely on a spring crop. Notwithstanding repeatid winter-killiug of late years, we have still more con fidence-in the long-run-in fall sown oats than in spring sown. POTATOES. Detailed suggestions for digging and preserving this crop were given last month. If not alrcady harvested, no time ahould b. lost in doing this job. The hills or banks should be more and more deeply covered with earth as w:c" winter comes on. COTTO . The exceedingly favorably weather that prevailed during the early fall has made it an easy matter to gather the crop in good condition. If our sugges tions looking to the most expeditious pla a of saving the crop have been heeded the last picking involves the glea.ning of the cotton remaining after the first hasty grab. It will now be realized how little will have been lost if the hulls remain as they wera first left and how much has been saved by following the suggestions in securing the bulk of the crop in good condition. CARtE OF LIVE STOCK. Owing to our comparatively mild win ter climate the Southern farmer is apt to neglect wholesome precautions against severe weather. In fact, it is shameful how little thought or care is given on many farms to the comfort of the dumb and helpless animal who toil for us the year round, and are content with their wages, rations and shelter. Aside from moral and humane considerations it is a question of dollars and cents tha~t no ianer can afford to ignore. There are .nu farmers who arc generous to a fault in feeding; they fill up the feed troughs and hay-racks with corn and oats and fodder three times a day. But the shelter provided is oiten of the most primn've and inadequate kind, and, shame to so. sometimes no better than the lee-side ' a corn-crib or a fence corner. It snould be remembered that the food ingested by a horse, cow or other animal serves two distinct pur oses in the animal economy: 1. To ieep up the he:4t of the body to the point below which the vital processes cannot be carried on and life continn~e. This temperature M degreesg must be maintained constantly in the very cold~ est as well as in mild weather. Thec natural means of maintaining this ii mal heat is by burning a portion of the food as it passes through the lungs in the form of blood. The colder the weather-other things being the samie the greater will be the proportion of the food3 that is taken into the stomach that must be used as fuel, and of course the roportion that can be utilized for- re-pair ig wasto tissues and stored up as fat must be lessened. But if resort is hadi to mechanical means to keen out the cold -to keep in the heat-a very great say ig oL fo~od is accomplishca, while at the ame titne the animals are stronger for labor or fatter for the butcher. In our own domestx arrangements we obey thi principle without much attention to th philosoyby of it. We provide thic wals, tient windows and doors, stoppmg~ the craeks witui care, and warm beds t sleep on-thus saving the consumption of a much larger amount of fuel, an adding greatly to the p~ersonal comfoa' and happiness and preserving the hediaL of the memberm of oair family. Nail lumber anda boards are msuch cheaper conservators of animal warmth and p.r'o moters of thrift and fattening than eittra~ allowances of food. But why phioo phize on this subject? Is there a farmuer in all this broad land who does not know that it is more profitable, more humane, more. Christian-.ike, to make his live stoek comfortable than to cemuel t-c to stand ,eering in the fence norners, or at be-t in op- sLeds or pole-inade stables with cracks so large th.tt a c1o might easily jump through. If there is, we tr:t t iuat he is not among the read e. of The Cultivator. t will be reniembered in this counce i th a :e ave often stressed he im por:ee o gtting the porkers irto, condition for the knife before the cold w-: ltr has set in for the winter. Hoga :honM now b nearly or quite ready to kill. and sava'tsce should be taken of the first cold spell the latter part of this month to commence opo ' . Christ mas shoula find them smnoke house and the first kil e stieks. The best and cheapest bat at made from hogs well fattened an butchered in December or earlier. LHu HOLSEHOLD. While not as delin-quent in respect to provision for household comfort as in the matter of protection to dumb ani mals, yet it is often a reproach to the otherwise good name and reputation of many farmers that they give so little at tention to the various matters that go to make up the sum total of household comfort and happiness. Big cotton crops, plenty of provisions, abundant house-room, etc., do not of themselves I supply all the demands of comfort and contentmenf, though affording the means and removing the shadow of ex case for failure. There is no reason why a farmer should not have as comfo.ttable a home and as convenient appliances (gas-light and water-works only except. ed) as in the town or city. Now is the time to make these arrangements and provisions for the coming winter. Im portant factors in the problem of domes tic comfort and family contentment and happiness at all times, they are two-fold more important during the five or six months that are to come. Do away with the old style of dwelling in the centre of a big yard, kitchen in one corner of the same, well in another, smoke-house in still another, and wood-pile of gree-n, soggy and perhaps swamp woodani dull ax over the fence or ont by the road side. L :t the kiiehen and a conve;iient store-room, to be reple-ished from time to time from a wel.-filled smoke-. ':ase, be under Vie same roof witi the dhell ing. Provide an abundant store of cut and dried friel and kindling. By t-:-ni tionl to these and ai hundred other de tails of household conveniences ard comforts, time and patience are con served, h alih and ehetrinlness pronmoted and home is made happy. i Ili' m a O~ :?: THAN.u . They Are Grat."ut or .heir Return to snri. E:nest Bown, a:ccompaied by Ferli nand )abc-. .Johu Curry, A. K-::mer Carl A. Lamnerech and manly others caled la:-t ni;rt. hat th;e residenuce rof Cou..eller August P. Wagentr ;,nd presetei hin with a:-et of fratted res dutions exp: vc of their deep ' ratitude to Liu for the s vices he renured in obtaining their rlea:e from the intan -UI a. ard's Lha .nd. Accordm. to Mr. Wagenvr's str,", a great wrong is bitg uptald by tie .oartd of Ciarhies unt u ernme:ti :itei :den titied with the Ward's Ishmd Asyum. Mr. W 4agenetr s~etat'. b.-yondl the :hado . (f a doubt over:20 s-e 1 (e-, ns ;r-t'd-; c, ds ed in thin:a sy on %, art's1i . vhine over e-thid of the who have been wired ins , e are at. r d: san tia of r se'-x who are today recog n :ed~ by -oiei-v as beint eaatly so(md. Several . :. .n..t en who pai-i l:cir res- p -ir. ::: a ho" - iS it h;dbie-alettat aw fr t i, aring seem..d en~ti tsd.Io nu Iuee, wh ia- b-e :irv!hid for coer wshi dsnhe, asclumb~ t d u'a nd tl..eth man trnedh sry pi'ter te tent hihd bere ceied on tard'svbloud for : eai tr. at'.u-;hr a:eth and per i feety r-na in oall thins, ed vbyreue a dn hesgle foren the memesica of thi alu, and cn sAny keptnwr an meiae empmn, tolda wasid g distothe hs ncru lyh toreaned wibythise on ctale hnte elke Cohn C::ry whom ree,ieedictuyrelof gond hrendtrinforme the, rerte ds his -sad epen ooias in thec oslf ,evaen yers uati~ seven mlon, and tolat wr he ipn~ st mad tifry him toin bereobdb ~wig n-edb thoster in re Mr. ry his drn,i athe fmendes, fo whom vlu hie had A.gs Kr Wamer, aniten youmng ld atthe rofuhstree porhs'lcontaedn a n wal hoae he~a had been ll trated bytoe he charge twen phe caell knewt fdtht therea wen ayof asnilof good telth. Cafr A. Lammrecrh bnexeengl enlld i .-red emrcan rentedi sdeprenas a-n inatye ofithe a. hand huitt eseiimid rtom his itin omb tedere mit'g tie sCt(Rier liniaorde fr t e hser fam i an d inds froml wof the adin beclnelly:( separatd. or oners. v .ugstr.?.o, Wagenere alon the 1eihr six auepersns romthei tslanks to hw at the reque st tenredalf-te woma whse usbn had been c lh andl coii edeha r- taken. 1-u fendcs, onlyto -a - t.t er were tan he reastmiley had M. le r 1pp-.0re l te Arereto room, e afe wl-worded-' rearksgan prsned 1. ee il yug:ULawyt derseit a- hand by the Soty o liumani.dtye forthe e-. v r.:o render ' in be U df of the suffter inmaes o War'h oude hooer chlevy ai' r Fieron, vh ere alo the rcip-, two of andsom p r", erepetstedeed. h .indi ' expr'se ordvr. pesin lr an . Wageer, too tesrs cred.in th itonrAuu..us of thei enys inted It!- jiemeli.tl pata ofn his freshe ad rearedU ) ~ f artheraon."Atr e in-r. ih joyous atin disperkse.-Kar IIr ir, jil-. t1. etrteef --Thet bo-bis iise -.e,"::d the fther f-a-,arils to varecoanite suusfi! n NOTED NEGRESSES. Notorious Mien Enough-Now for a Few Notorious Women of Color. (From the Mail and Express.) Mr. T. Thomas Fortune is one of the ablest and best known colored men in the country. He is a man of 35 or there abouts, with a keen, intellectual face and u quick interest in everything that con cerns the future of the colored people of America. "Tell me something," Mr. Fortune was asked a few days since, "about the women of your race who have done the most for it and for themselves." "Colored women have hardly had op portunity to do much that is sensation al," he replied. "They haven't had time. But still there are several- who are prominent among their own people and who have earned a solid reputation. Take Washington,.for instance. Colored women of the best class there don't take much to marrying. They get along better than the men, and usually devote themselves to their work and succeed well in it. The most prominent colored women in Washington, in the best sense of the word, are the" teachers-such women as Miss M. B. Briggs, professor of English in Howard University, amdst talented woman; or Josephine J. Turpin, of the same school, who is a frequent contributor to newspapers; or Lucy Moulton, who is the efficient principal of a big training school; or Mary Nalle or Marion Sihadd-all highly cultured j women, respected and esteemed by those who know them. "in Philadelphia there is the skilful woman physician, Dr. Caroline V. An derson. She is the daughter of William Still, a wealthy colored merchant and one of the directors of the 'Underground Railroad,' of which he has written the history. His daughter is a regular graduate of the medical department of Howard University and enjoys a -big. practice. Philadelphia is the home of other women of character and ability. There is Mrs. Fanny Jackson Coppin, the lecturer, who devotes most of her time to the institution for colored youth there, and Mrs. Gertrude Moselle, who used to conduct the woman's depart ment on the New York Freeman, and who has written for the NewYork Times and the Philadelphia Press as well as for papers published in the interest of the negro race. Mrs. Moselle is a mem ber of the Woman's National Press As sociation, the only member of her race. Mrs. Frances E. Harper, the temper ance lecturer and writer, has lived much in Philadelphia also. "In Boston one of the best known colored women is a modiste, whose eye for effects in fabric, form and color has made her rich. Other colored women who have a wider reputation than anyof these are Marie Selika, the prima donna soprano, who was born in Natchez and whose voice is of such sweetness, purity and compass that musical critics have called her second only to Patti. Mme. Selika has taken Gerster's place in the concert in Boston, and has sung before the crowned heads of Europe. "Madame Nellie Brown Mitchell is another musician with a mechanicalturn of mind. She has invented and patented two or three appliances now in common use by musical instructors. Equally well-known in another branch of the fine arts is Edmonia Lewis, the sculptor. She is an Afro-Indian, and was born in New York State, but now has her studio in Rome, where she has plenty of com missions and has done.some fine work. 'The Old Arrowmaker and his Daughter' is one of her best known productins and is owned in England. "Ida B. Wells-'Iola'-whose suit for damages under Mississippi laws for be ing forcibly thrust out of a passengercar in Memphis by three or four white men brought her before the public a few years ago, is probably the best known of colored women journalists, and Miss M. E. Lambert is a poetess of genius. The wife of the Rev. Frank Grimke, of Jacksonville, Fla., formerly a Miss Forten, of Philadelphia, is a young wo man, but already widely known." I asked Mr. Forue if he knew any colored women who were reputed wealthy, but he did not seem especially interested in that branch of the subject, and I resoected his reticence. It would not be dificult, however, to pick out a doze~n colored women in the country whose property in the aggregate might be expressed "on information and be lief," by seven figures. In such a list would come the Gloucesters, the rich boarding-house keepers of Brooklyn; Miss Amanda Eubanks, of Rome, Ga., whose white father left her $40,000; Mrs. Mary A. Wilson, a wealthy Florida wo man; Mrs. Mary Pleasants, of San Francisco, who holds something more than. $35,000 in Government bonds, owns a ranch and has some city real estate; Mrs. James Thomas, of St. Louis, who is worth something like $300,000, and whose barber shop, the "Lindell", is the most luxurious in the country, and Mrs. Catherine Blake, who owns the Kenmiore Hotel at Albany, which is reputed worth $150,000. Miss Drake, a young colored woman of Nash, N. C., has taken the prize for the best production of cotton at all the State fairs, and other Afro-Amnerican women are doing solid industrial work. There are two colored women in the ranks of the law, Miss Florence Ray, of Brooklyn, and Mrs. M. S. Cary, of Washington. There is at least one col ored minister, the Rev. Mrs. Freeman, of Providence. There has been one woman at the head of a newspaper pub lished in the interest of Afro-Americanis, Mtiss Carrie Bragg, who for some time edited the Lancet, at Petersburg, Va. Quite a Romance. Mr. J. B. Blaikie's marriage to Miss Ele oto Savannah, was recently announced. This marriage has an un usual halo of romance about it. Miss Botts was a niece of President Arthur, and after her engagement a fever and the excitement of the earthquake brought about a loss of vision which the occulists pronounced permanent. She immedi ately sent her fiance, who was in Scot iana, a release, whichl he refused to accept, and took the next steamer to America to declare his fidelity and urge an immediate marriage. This unexpect ed happiness produced a great change for the better in Miss Botts, wich ended by her recovering her eyesight. Thie young people go to Scotland next month.-Baltimore Sun. Why is a professionalthier v.ery comfort